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The app is scheduled to go to Shopify for review nxt Friday (feb 23), so barring any hold ups it should be out there for general use around March 1. I'll definitely be making noise about it on the day of release

I spend £ 12 per month on a website and about £ 100 a month
on advertising and promotion. Some months I barely make that in revenue.

Everyone is keen to take money from authors, it would seem.
If only the public were as keen on buying books.

What I don't understand is why Shopify will make any
difference. Amazon has a huge platform too, surely much larger that Shopify's.
Your books still have to be discovered and purchased, no matter which platform
you are on. I would rather pay nothing to be on Amazon than pay out even more
than I currently do.

I like believing that it can happen, and usually it does. So I will do my very best, pay the $29, hustle to post the link everywhere and let google do the rest. Plus, you can add the shopify app to your facebook page; there is huge traffic there and mega companies are using it.

I pay zero in advertising every month. But I work and think a lot. Shopify seems like a good idea.

The "Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door", is nonsense. (Although the man credited with saying that, never actually did and he was alive in a time when most people lived in small communities and knew everyone in them, and the original saying more or less testifies to that.) All the same, people need to be told a product exists or companies would not need to spend billions a year on advertising. I am pretty sure that when people are looking on line for a book, they already know what they are looking for for many reasons. They may have read or heard on TV/radio a glowing review of it; or seen an advert; they already know and like the author and they know they have a new book out. So many reasons, but all to do with marketing. Letting people know a book exists and often where. Many people will search for a name or title they already know, or at the very least, the subject they are interested in. But it would not surprise me if Amazon books is their first port of call to search within. There's a huge amount of stuff on line giving advice. Here's just one at random (that's not trying to sell a marketing service!) http://badredheadmedia.com/2017/01/09/4-effective-book-marketing-strategies-work/

I spend £ 12 per month on a website and about £ 100 a month
on advertising and promotion. Some months I barely make that in revenue.

Everyone is keen to take money from authors, it would seem.
If only the public were as keen on buying books.

What I don't understand is why Shopify will make any
difference. Amazon has a huge platform too, surely much larger that Shopify's.
Your books still have to be discovered and purchased, no matter which platform
you are on. I would rather pay nothing to be on Amazon than pay out even more
than I currently do.

I see one important misconception I want to address. Selling on Amazon is not free. You earn a substantially reduced margin when they sell. It's not a monthly fee of course, but you are being "charged" for the privilege of selling on Amazon.

The benefit of eCommerce is that you don't pay the huge margin to Amazon. You might realize fewer sales through your own website than you do through Amazon because Amazon is a behemoth, but successful authors all seem to agree that the best way to build a base of fans who will keep buying your books is to drive them to your own website.

So basically, we're not introducing eCommerce integrations to replace any existing retail structures. Think of it more of a means to supplement the existing tools and provide authors who already focus on selling direct a better profit model.

I think people are reading books, that's why PODs are still in business, that'swhy Amazon and Barnes and Noble and our local Chapters is still in business, and libraries and so on. Books will be read till the end of time.

And we have so many systems in place nowadays to help us sell them. Shopify is just one more path. If you're a yasayer take it. If not it's ok too.

I see one important misconception I want to address. Selling on Amazon is not free. You earn a substantially reduced margin when they sell. It's not a monthly fee of course, but you are being "charged" for the privilege of selling on Amazon.

Indeed, but the fact that there's no subscription to pay does make it free to use it. Like Lulu, Amazon get their share when a book sells, and nothing if it does not. Unlike some places that charge a subscription, sale or no sales. Retailers of course always make money from a sale. But a store does not charge a fee for carrying a tin of beans on their shelves awaiting the sale of it.

The benefit of eCommerce is that you don't pay the huge margin to Amazon. You might realize fewer sales through your own website than you do through Amazon because Amazon is a behemoth, but successful authors all seem to agree that the best way to build a base of fans who will keep buying your books is to drive them to your own website.

Indeed, part two. If one is selling 'direct' then tis you who get all or most of the dosh. However, I recall from the website I used to have, if one activated the ability of people being able to pay by card, then each sale resulted in a fee being taken from my sale price (even though I already paid monthly for the site.) That was called the eCommerce tool. I think Pay By Paypal does the same.

So basically, we're not introducing eCommerce integrations to replace any existing retail structures. Think of it more of a means to supplement the existing tools and provide authors who already focus on selling direct a better profit model.

People are of course, but still not a great percentage of the general population, which is a shame, and there's far more media to distract them away from books nowadays, too.

that's why PODs are still in business,

People create books via POD even if they don't sell. POD's are still in business because enough people pay them to print a book or two. Hopefully lots more! It's not a guideline to how many people read, or even buy books to read.

that's why Amazon and Barnes and Noble and our local Chapters is still in business,

Amazon, of course, sell far more things other than books. It does not cost them a great deal extra to have a Book section. There's also millions of books published a year, so even a small percentage of sales for B&N of those = enough to stay in business.

and libraries

I don't know what it is like in other countries, but many libraries in the UK moved to hiring out other media, too, and also offering the free use of PC stations. Books took a lesser facility in them. But many were also closed down due to public finance cuts.

and so on. Books will be read till the end of time.

I doubt they will, not as printed matter anyway. But currently printed book sales are going back up and ebook sales are falling. No doubt that's just a trend, though. Worryingly, the rise back up of printed book sales last year is not as great as the fall in ebook sales. So book sales as a whole over the last year was down. Amazon does not follow that, oddly. Printed books there went up 46% and ebooks by 7%!

And we have so many systems in place nowadays to help us sell them. Shopify is just one more path. If you're a yasayer take it. If not it's ok too.

Quite right. Yer pays yer money and makes yer choice. No one is forcing people to take up these opportunities.

Hi all: New author here. I'm quite interested in the Lulu/Shopify integration. How is the integration going? Are authors on lulu using it successfully? To me, controlling the experience on my own site is a must, since I want to know who bought and be able to build the community.

@Paul_Lulu&nbsp; thoughts? Any specific page I should go to in order to know all the ins and outs of creating a basic ecom website on shopify and easily integrating with lulu?